Culinary and classical encyclopedia adamantly asserts that steak is a beef steak, a piece of fried beef tenderloin. Haute cuisine for meat steak makes too severe demands: meat for beef steak is cut only in a certain part of the carcass. It is clear why beef tenderloin is so expensive, and it is not always possible to find it in regular stores. Luxury restaurants buy such meat before it reaches the counter, even earlier.
But, having a great culinary experience, unlimited access to information placed in the “world wide web”, we will not despair. Other meat is also great for making chopped steaks, and they are sometimes even tastier than a whole piece of beef tenderloin. It all depends on the irrepressible culinary fantasy.
Minced Beef Steak - Basic Technological Principles
Classic steak is made from beef, even if the meat is chopped. But even from this principle, you can retreat if you want to cook a meat dish deliciously, and there is no beef available. Feel free to use any sirloin meat that is in the fridge: chicken, turkey, pork, beef, lamb - all options will do. But remember that beefsteak differs from burgers in cooking technology, even if you use regular meat patties to make it or minced meat.
To bring the taste of minced steak to the original recipe, let's see what stages of cooking a piece of beef undergoes before becoming a famous classic steak.
Chunks of beef for beefsteak are cut necessarily across the fibers. The thickness of the piece is important for the degree of roasting. The meat should not be too thin so that the steak does not turn out to be dry and hard after frying. The ideal thickness is one and a half centimeters, considering that after frying the product will almost halve in size, and meat juice should still remain in the finished product. As a rule, all steaks have a round or slightly oval shape, the same size as the tenderloin thickness. Natural beef steak is traditionally soaked before cooking in various marinades, using sour-sweet ingredients or similar mixtures to taste. Peppers are added to marinades for spiciness, spicy ingredients for aroma, garlic, ginger, horseradish for savory taste.
Marinade, in addition to giving the taste of meat, prepares meat protein to heat treatment - this is its main meaning. The fact is that the protein collapses (shrinks) at a high temperature. As a result, liquid is displaced from the fibers, which immediately evaporates in a hot frying pan, and the steak, cutlet or steak becomes inexpressibly stiff and look not at all tempting. The presence of acid in the marinade softens the fibers of the meat, which reduces their reduction during frying. Sugar or other sweet ingredients add spice to meat dishes, emphasize the taste, and during frying they also form an appetizing caramel crust. The crust on the surface of the meat prevents evaporation of the juice from the inside. In cooking, too, everything is interconnected, and all principles are based on the physics and biochemistry of products and methods for their processing.
It remains to add that the mince for cooking steaks is even more convenient and easy option. Small pieces of meat, of course, are also compressed when frying, but this does not deform the product, and to avoid loss of juiciness, be sure to fry the semifinished product so as to quickly achieve the formation of a crust on the surface.
All known and still unknown marinade recipes for a natural steak from a whole piece of meat are also suitable for minced meat, only in the second case you need to add less liquid so that when the medallions are formed, the stuffing does not blur and the product has a beautiful even shape.
Another detail: try not to add bread, starch, flour and other thickeners to the minced beefsteak. These are not homemade burgers. Now you can begin to test recipes.
1. Ground beefsteak - a simple picnic dish
Ingredients: Chopped meat (beef) 750 g
Soy sauce 75 ml
Dijon mustard 100 g
Honey 90 g
Butter 120g
Orange juice, natural 200 ml
Coriander 15g
Clove 5 g
Pepper (paprika), ground 20 g
Preparation:
Add all the ingredients to the meat patty. The stuffing should be thoroughly mixed and, covering the container with film, put ten or twelve hours in the fridge for ripening. It is convenient to cook such a cutlet mass at night. The next day, take out the meat, form from it round medallions, 1.5 cm thick. Semi-finished products can be fried in a grill pan, on a wire rack.
Serve with baked vegetables and spicy tomato sauce.
2. Minced meat steak with egg and onion - a rich breakfast
Ingredients:
Pork mince 900 g
Ground pepper
Salt
Eggs, dietary 6 pcs.
Onions (rings) 600 g
For garnish:
French fries
Vegetable salad (cucumbers, tomatoes)
Preparation:
Choose bold pork for steak. Fat will give juiciness to meat, therefore in its cutlet mass it should be not less than 25%. Chop the flesh with a knife, add spices. Fight off minced meat before the appearance of meat juice containing collagen (protein), which holds together pieces of minced meat or minced meat. Hold the minced meat in the cold so that the protein starts to harden. This will help to easily form round cakes. Consider that meat when frying loses up to 40% of mass. Therefore, the weight of the raw semi-finished product must be based on these losses.
For frying beefsteak with an egg, it is necessary to prepare round molds with no bottom: tin hollows for cookies are suitable. Heat the pan. Fry the steaks until golden brown, turn them over, and put metal rings on each one. Inside the rings, on top of the steak steak gently in one egg. The second side of the steak will be roasting simultaneously with the fried eggs. Adjust the fire plate so that the egg white coagulates at the same time as the crust appears on the underside of the steak. Put the portions on plates. In the same pan, removing the form, fry the onion, cut into rings and sprinkled with flour. Potatoes are better to fry in fat from vegetable fat. Place it on a la carte plates, next to the steak, and juicy slices of cucumbers and tomatoes will decorate and balance a rich breakfast.
3. Minced beefsteak with cream sauce
Ingredients for 6 servings:
Beef, chopped 750 g
Paprika, dried (pieces) 50 g
Garlic (slices) 8-10 pcs.
Lemons (juice and zest) 2 pcs.
Olive oil 75 ml
Fresh thyme (leaves)
Salt
Butter, cream 50 g
Egg 1 pc.
Cream (20%) 150 ml
Preparation:
Minced meat lightly salt to begin the separation of the juice, mix and form round meatballs. In the olive oil, add paprika, thyme leaves, fresh zest.
Preheat oven to 220 ° C. Grease the baking dish with the prepared oil mixture. Put whole slices of garlic in it, between steaks. Using a brush, coat the semi-finished products with the same mixture. Bake until done. Then sprinkle the steaks with the juice of one lemon, cover the hot form with foil for ten minutes.
Beat the egg and butter in a lush foam, pour the cream, heated to 90-95 ° C, in a thin stream, without stopping the beating. Add the juice of the second lemon, chopped slices of roasted garlic, zest and thyme leaves. Bring sauce to a boil, remove from heat. When it cools to room temperature, transfer to the refrigerator. Sauce should be served cold, so it can be prepared in advance.
This steak perfectly complement the cream cheese, tomatoes, olives. In any case, they think so in Florence.
4. Minced meat steak with almonds and sesame
Ingredients:
Beef (minced) 1.8 kg
Sesame 200 g
Almonds, ground 150 g
Soy sauce 100 ml
Honey, liquid 90 g
Garlic 50g
Ginger (root) 70 g
Coriander 25g
Oil, vegetable 200 ml
To decorate the dish:
Lettuce, curly parsley, pickled ginger
Preparation:
Chop garlic and almond root on a fine grater or using a blender. In the ground beef, add all the main ingredients except sesame seeds. Stir. Cover the mass with a film and let it ripen in the refrigerator for at least two hours. Then proceed to the formation of semi-finished products. If desired, they can be fried in a frying pan, baked in the oven or grilled. Serve, before putting on the plate a leaf of lettuce, a sprig of parsley. Sprinkle with sesame. Next put pickled ginger.
5. Minced Beefsteak - “Bloody Mary”
Ingredients:
Minced meat 1.2 kg
Salt
Lemon 2 pcs.
Celery (stalks) 50 g
Tomatoes 100 g
Pepper
Vodka 75 ml
Lettuce leaves, lemon wedges - for decoration
Cooking:
Remove the zest from one lemon and squeeze the juice. This is for ground beef. Blanch fresh tomatoes, peel, chop to a puree-like consistency, and add to the mince with salt and pepper. Add vodka. Soak the mass in the cold for maturation, the standard - at least two hours. After forming the round burgers and fry in any way: in the oven, on the grill or in the pan.
6. Minced meat steak with mint-fruit sauce
Ingredients:
Beef 700g
Pork fat 300 g
Black pepper
Brown sugar
Soy sauce
Salt
Carnation
Coriander
Cognac 150 ml
Frying oil
Sauce:
Baked apples 3 pcs.
Black currant (juice) 100 ml
Honey 50 g
Chili (powder)
Oil, vegetable 90 ml
Starch, corn 30 g
Mint leaves - to taste
Cooking:
Cut meat and bacon arbitrarily, pass through a large grid of the meat grinder. Add all the spices to the meat, except brandy and butter. Stir mince. When adding spices, salt and sugar, follow your taste. Prepare the minced meat and keep in the fridge. Form semi-finished products, weighing 150 g. Fry chopped steaks, warming up the butter in a frying pan. After frying, gently pour brandy into the pan, and set it on fire using a long match or wooden skewer. Before this stage of preparation, pay attention to the fact that there are no flammable items nearby. Flambirovanie, after burning out alcohol, gives the meat a unique flavor. This cooking technique can compete with your favorite meat, fried on a fire, given that after burning out the alcohol, there are no carcinogens left in the dish that are harmful to health, the products of wood combustion. The sauce can be prepared the day before. This is a very simple and festive original recipe. In addition, a pleasant combination of acid, sweetness and spice with fresh mint is perfect for grilled meat.
Separate mashed baked apples. Pour the berry juice into it, add honey and starch. Stir the mass, bring to a boil, add spices, also to taste. Ready sauce scroll in a blender at high speed, adding chopped fresh mint.
To hot steak sauce is served cold.
Minced Beefsteak - Good Tips
To steak has always been juicy, fry it in a hot frying pan to ensure the rapid formation of a dense crust, which will delay the meat juice inside the semi-finished product. Turning the product to the other side, place a piece of butter under it so that the meat has a creamy nutty flavor.
Do not rush to remove steaks, cutlets, steaks and other meat dishes from the pan after frying. Cover them with a lid or foil, at least for five minutes, so that the meat “rested”, and, formed on the surface, the crust became less hard and dry.
